Films of March

I was only able to watch 7 movies in March. Most weekends I spent on the beach outside of Manila or in bed sleeping/resting. By the rate I'm going I don't think I won't be able to top the 160+ movies I watched last year. I'm not complaining. That means a cheaper electricity bill for me.

But I digress. Here are a few noteworthy films I saw in March.


1. The Princess and the Frog. Disney's outstanding version of The Frog Prince.
2. Where The Wild Things Are. Spike Jonze's terrific adaptation of Maurice Sendak's 1963 children's book of the same title.
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox. George Clooney and Meryl Streep voice out the titular character and his wife in this film about fox vs humans.
4. Green Zone. Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass team up again after the last two Bourne movies to give us this about WMDs and the Iraq war.
5. Alice in Wonderland. The visuals is underwhelming but Helena Bonham Carter makes your forget about that. As I said to a friend after watching the film - "Bonham Carter stole Alice from Depp".

3D

3D is now the in-thing in Hollywood. After James Cameron’s Avatar broke Titanic’s box office records, every producer seems to want to dip into the 3D frenzy. There was Tim Burdon’s Alice in Wonderland which was fun to watch but was underwhelming as a 3D visual orgasm. Then in the next few months more 3D films are coming out – Clash of the Titans, Toy Story 3, the last 2 Harry Potter films, and Shrek Forever After. I even read that George Lucas is planning to re-release his Star Wars movies in 3D.

That got me thinking. Why don’t they re-release adult films instead like Killing Me Softly, 9 Songs, and all the movies from this list ? Better yet why not porn in 3D?

Films of February

I watched 10 movies in February. I saw a naked Maggie Gyllenhaal, a gaunt Toby Maguire, and giant hotdogs falling from the sky. These were fine movies but could not hold a candle to the other 7. These are:

1. Man on Wire. An edge-of-your-seat documentary about a Frenchman who attempts in 1975 to tightrope-walk the 200 feet that separates the two World Trade Centers in 1975. The film plays like a thriller where the main protagonist and a slew of supporting characters meticulously plan a bizarre and almost impossible to pull-off attempt.

2. Requiem for a Dream. Darren Aronosfsky directs this 2000 gem about addiction - drugs, weight-loss pills, fame, fortune - and how addicts stretch themselves to attain the orgasmic but temporary euphoria. Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connely, Marlon Wayans are all terrific. The film also has one of the best musical scores ever recorded.

3. Leaving Las Vegas. An alcoholic bent on drinking himself to death. A hooker eking out a living. These two social pariahs meet and spend one sexless night together, develop a bond, and decides to live together. Elisabeth Shue is irresistibly good but this film is owned by Nicolas Cage.

4. Invictus. Clint Eastwood directs another gem, which he does almost annually starting from 2003’s Mystic River to last year’s Gran Torino, about how Nelson Mandela was able to unite his country in post-apartheid South Africa as they host and win the 1995 World Rugby League World Cup. This is an inspiring film and one that all Filipinos should watch to see how real and honest leaders should be.

5. Shine. This 1996 film directed by Scott Hicks follows the life of pianist David Helfgott as a young boy trained by a father (Armin Mueller-Stahl) obsessed on winning to his years as a music scholar in London to his mental breakdown. The actors who play David Helfgott are terrific – Noah Taylor as the teenaged David and Geoffrey Rush, who won an Oscar Best Actor for the role, as the grownup David. The last minutes of the film is a little bit like Mr. Holland’s Opus but I ain’t complaining.

6. Orphan. The orphan in this thriller is a fucking bitch. I wanted to grab her out of the TV and give her an unforgettable spanking.

7. The Boys Are Back. This film, based on a Simon Carr memoir The Boys are Back in Town, is about a widower and sportswriter (Clive Owen) struggling to raise and bond with his two sons – one from his dead wife, another from a previous marriage.

Top 10: "Feel-Good" Movies

Someone is getting laid today. It will be fun. It will be sweaty. It will be sweet. It may even be rough. And it will eventually be tiring.

Here then are recommended films to watch while cuddling and regaining the energy well spent.

1. Original Sin (2001). Antonio Banderas is a man in need of a wife. Angelina Jolie is a mail-order bride. Both stars sizzle on their scenes together. A single VCD copy of the film switched hands for weeks among my batchmates in our last year in college. It was a big hit.

2. Unfaithful (2002). A college friend was not at all happy with this movie. I disagreed. Aside from that airport scene, Diane Lane and Oliver Martinez’ scenes are worth watching.

3. Scorpio Nights (1985). This is probably the best local adult film I have ever seen. The sex scenes are hot. The sequel, starring Joyce Jimenez and Albert Martinez, looks tame when compared to the far superior original.

4. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001). Alfonso Cuaron, director of Children of Men, directs Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna who goes on a road trip with a much older woman. Forget about the quick lip-lock between the two male characters, the scenes that came before that – in the motel room and in the backseat of a car – make this film worth-watching. The deleted scenes from the DVD are pretty good too. Haha.

5. The Dreamers (2003). An American teen befriends two French siblings in 1968 France. He eventually moves in with them and embarks in naughty and intimate scenes with the two. It got an NC17 rating, a rating worse than R18, when it was released in the US.

6. Mulholland Drive (2001). David Lynch's mind-bending film is a beguiling one about an actress struggling to make it to the movies. The last act of the film featuring a lengthy girl-on-girl action is as shocking as its ending.

7. Jamon Jamon (1992). The film's many twists and turns are reminiscent of soap operas. It is a fun film to watch especially it's over-the-top ending. Oscar winners Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz star.

8. Wild Things (1998). The film’s many plot twists is reminiscent of Live Flesh, #7 on this list. There is said to be a great threesome scene involving Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, and Matt Dillon which got cut by our self-proclaimed moral guardians. For an 18-year-old whose taste in movies has not yet seen the light, the butchered version seen on screen was enthralling.

9. Basic Instinct (1992). The film that made Sharon Stone the star of most men’s dreams in the early 90s. I saw the film only a few years back. It was then I realized why it was such a big hit.

10. Lust, Caution (2007). This is my least favorite of Ang Lee’s films. It is about a female spy sent to assassinate an official of the sitting Chinese government. Similar to The Dreamers, the film also got an NC17 rating. The sex here is explicit and rough and almost too-real. Tony Leung (Infernal Affairs, Happy Together, In The Mood for Love) stars.

Films of January

I watched 16 movies for January alone. 7 of these are in the running for my favorite films of 2010. And here they are...

1. An Education. A film about a 16-year-old schoolgirl who falls in love with a man twice her age. Carrey Mulligan gives, hands-down, the best performance of 2009.

2. Home. A terrific documentary about the threat made by man to our planet's ecological balance and what the rest of the world are doing to salvage it. The film found a great narrator in Glenn Close.

3. Happy Together. A beautifully photographed film from Wong Kar Wai, my favorite director on this side of the world, about two gay lovers whose paths separate and then collide in Argentina.

4. L’Appartement. A terrific thriller with a terrific ending starring a refreshingly young Monica Belucci. It was remade by Hollywood into Wicker Park and butchered it by giving the film a happy ending.

5. Let The Right One In. A Swedish film about a 12-year-old vampire who develops a deep connection to a 12-year-old normal boy who lives next door. The last time Morse Code was employed in a movie, it came out terrifyingly good. That film was Infernal Affairs. This vampire film is in that league.

6. The Cove. Another outstanding documentary about the man who gave rich corporations the idea that they could make a helluva lot of money staging dolphin shows and how he spends for the rest of his life atoning for this mistake – by traveling all over the world trying to save the wholesale slaughter of whales and dolphins.

7. Up In The Air. A film from the director of Juno about a man who fires people for a living, who gets sexually and emotionally involved with a fellow frequent traveler, and whose job is being threatened by a young woman’s 21st century ideals.

Mr. Bittersweet

I have a new moniker - Mr. Bittersweet. A friend coined it when she found out why I liked Jason Reitman's 'Up in the Air'.

My reason? It's because George Clooney by the film's end is where he was at the film's start - alone but with a slightly broken heart.

I guess calling me Mr. BS is just right. I dig sad endings. I dig it when conflicts are not mysteriously resolved. Or when the main protagonist dies. Or when lovers break-up and live separate lives. Most likely when i say a film is great, it almost always does not end happily.

Don't get me wrong. I am not sick in the mind. I just don't regard cinema entirely as a medium for entertainment or for escapism. I sometimes think of cinema as art imitating life.

Life is not a bed of roses. Most of the time, if not always, its thorns prick. You snap out of your nirvana and then reality slaps you hard in the face.

Conflicts, deaths, heartbreaks, infidelity. They hide in the unseen future, anticipating, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. And when they do, life as you know it crumbles.

So, are there depressingly sad movies out there Mr. BS has not yet seen?

Favorite Films of 2009

I watched 140 films this year. There were a lot of really good ones. And some bad ones too.

I capped my movie-watching year with the MMFF entry I Love You Goodbye that is an almost terrible movie. This film IS said to be the best of this year’s crop. The 6 others must be really crappy.

Enough of my ranting. 2009 must end with a rave. So here are my favorite films seen this year.

Foreign Films:
1. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
2. The Hurt Locker (2009)
3. Avatar (2009)
4. Frost/Nixon (2008)
5. Gran Torino (2008)
6. Rachel Getting Married (2008)
7. Star Trek (2009)
8. (500) Days of Summer (2009)
9. District 9 (2009)
10. Drag Me to Hell (2009)
11. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
12. Enduring Love (2004)
13. The Best of Youth (2003)
14. The Wrestler (2008)
15. I’ve Loved You So Long (2008)
16. The Blind Side (2009)
17. Milk (2008)
18. Coraline (2009)
19. In Bruges (2008)
20. Two Lovers (2009)

*****

Filipino Films:
1. Dinig Sana Kita (2009)
2. Yanggaw (2008)
3. Ploning (2008)
4. Tirador (2007)
5. Ang Panggagahasa Kay Fe (2009)
6. Kimmy Dora (2009)
7. Last Supper No 3 (2009)
8. Sanglaan (2009)
9. You Changed My Life (2009)
10. Colorum (2009)

Avatar

We missed the 1st 10 minutes, no thanks to the December traffic. But the next 152 minutes of Avatar is the most jaw-dropping, astoundingly awesome cinematic experience I have had in years.

James Cameron transports us to the Pandora world he created for over a decade and you see every inch of it on screen. It is breathtaking. For 18 minutes shy of 3 hours, it feels like you really ARE in Pandora.

Forget about the Pocahontas-like plot. Go see this for the visual feast, the CGI, and the 40-minute battle sequence.

And watch this on an IMAX screen (SM MoA and SM North EDSA) which will continue screenings even during the MMFF. Believe me, the 400 pesos you pay is worth every centavo.

Go watch!

Ang Panggagahasa Kay Fe

Have you ever watched a local film where as the credits roll and the lights turn on you sit on your chair dumbfounded? Your brain going on overdrive, trying to process what just transpired on screen? That what you had just viewed was a rarity in Philippine cinema - an intelligent and thought-provoking film?



Alfred Yapan's Ang Panggagahasa Kay Fe (The Rapture of Fe), a finalist in this year's Cinemalaya Film Festival, is one of these rarities. It is the story of Fe, brilliantly played by Irma Adlawan, and the men in her life - an abusive husband, an ex-flame, and a secret admirer. The last few minutes of the film is simply terrific and would most probably require repeat viewing or a heated but fun discussion with whoever you went to the movie with.


The film will be in competition this week at the Cairo International Film Festival and at the Bahamas International Film Festival in December. It has also been included in the lineup at the Chicago International Film Festival and the New Delhi's Osian's Cinefan Film Festival.


As luck would have it, the film will have its commercial run in select theatres starting today, most notably at the Robinson's Galleria and Robinson's Place Ermita.

Go watch!

A Weekend with Filipino Films

I was feeling nationalistic over the weekend. So in between shipping my desktop to my hometown and hoarding DVDs in Quiapo and chatting with a good friend over office romance and a 5-hour tennis training I was able to squeeze in three Filipino movies on my tight schedule.

I saw Marian Rivera dance out of a cake in My Best Friend's Girlfriend. This movie proved that Richard Gutierrez can't act and that Rivera is a sight to behold and that Star Cinema makes way better romantic comedies than Regal and GMA Films combined.

I then shifted to Ded Na si Lolo, our official entry to this year's Oscars . The movie about five siblings coming to terms with their father's death is inconsistent, loophole-filled, directionless, and at times hilarious. It is no Departures or Cinema Paradiso or The Lives of Others or Pan's Labyrinth and has absolutely zero chance of getting nominated.

The last film that I saw and hands down the best among the three is Richard Somes' Yanggaw, official entry to last year's Cinema One Originals festival. I dare say it is the best suspense/horror local film I have seen in years. It tells the story of Amor who returns home to her impoverished family in the province after she is turned into an aswang. Cheap scare tactics take a backseat in the film and focuses more on the ties that bind a Filipino family.

Go get yourself a copy of Yanggaw. For the other two movies, you can wait for them to be shown on free TV.

Top 10: Fave Buddy Flicks

Women have their chick flicks and their romantic comedies. Men have films from other genre – porn, action, war, science fiction, and buddy flicks aka bromance films.

This list contains my favorite films on friendships forged among men. Most of the films in this list do not have neat endings.

Here then is the list of my favorite buddy flicks.


1. The Shawshank Redemption. Frank Darabont has adapted three of Stephen King's writings – The Shawshank Redemption in 1994, The Green Mile in 1999, and The Mist in 2007 – to the big screen and all of them had favorable reviews. His first attempt in 1994, the novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption which was included in his 1982 book Different Seasons, is his best. The film is about a friendship between two men who meet in prison and how they help each other survive and make something good our of prison life.

2. Good Will Hunting. This 1997 film from Gus Van Sant is said to be his most commercial film to date which is about Will Hunting who is intellectually-gifted but wastes away his skills by getting into fights and working as a janitor in MIT. I first saw this movie in college and I had thought it was the best-written film I had seen about male bonding. It has been more than a decade since and it still is the best twenty-something-male-bonding film out there.




3. Rain Man. Tom Cruise stars as a hotshot car dealer in Los Angeles who discovers that he has an autistic brother played by Dustin Hoffman upon his father’s death. Incensed, he embarks on a cross-country trip from Ohio to California with his brother to get his fare share of the inheritance but discovers along the way that he genuinely cares for his brother. This film won Oscars for Best Film, Best Director for Barry Levingson, and Best Actor for Hoffman. It also won the top prize that year in Berlin .




4. Sideways. A divorced guy and his college roommate go on a road trip through vineyard-populated Santa Ynez Valley in California , meeting two women – a waitress and a winery employee. The script is astoundingly good and delivered with such panache by its stars Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church , Sandra Oh, and Virginia Madsen. That dialogue between Giamatti and Madsen where the latter compares wine and relationships is one of the best I’ve seen in film.




5. Dead Poet's Society. Carpe diem. This is probably the most famous line in this sad but inspiring film about the friendship forged between an English teacher and his male boarding school students. Robin Williams and Ethan Hawke star in this film directed by Peter Weir, who directed the little-known Harrison Ford film Witness and the terrific The Truman Show.





6. Stand By Me. Based on the novella by Stephen King, this 1986 coming-of-age film is about a group of boys who go in search for a missing boy who was reportedy hit by a train while picking up blueberries. I saw this film in my early teens and to this day the boys’ adventures reminded me of the summer days with my brother and friends going on bike trips, skinny dipping, and climbing trees to pick cashew seeds and cooking them.




7. The Motorcycle Diaries. Gael Garcia Bernal star in this film about Ernesto Guevara de la Serna who, along with a good friend, embarks on a road trip across South America. What he witnesses – oppression and poverty - on his nine-month journey transforms how he sees the world as a carefree young man. It is said that his trip across the continent fueled and inspired his motives as Che Guevara, the Argentinean revolutionary.





8. Colorum. One of the better entries in this year's Cinemalaya, this Jon Steffan Ballesteros film is the story between a cop and an ex-convict who embark on a Manila-Bicol-Samar-Bicol-Manila-Ilocos Norte-Manila road trip after they get into a tragic road mishap. Alfred Vargas is surprisingly good but comedian and theatre actor Lou Veloso owns the film. His Best Actor win was well-deserved.



9. American Pie. This maybe a surprising choice but I had a grand time watching this movie about a group of teenage boys who plan to lose their virginity before graduating from high school. The scenes were freaking hilarious and gross. Remember the scene with Nadia and the webcam? Jim getting caught while doing the deed with a pie? Alyson Hannigan with her ‘one time at band camp’ line? Stifler accidentally drinking on a cup which he thinks contains beer? Stifler’s mother?



10. Pare Ko. Jose Javier Reyes' 1995 movie is about a group of friends battling personal problems - family, love, and heartbreak. I saw this film in my mid teens and was just blown away by it. I know this is not a perfect film. I would probably dismiss it as crap when released today but back then I thought this film was perfect.

(500) Days of Summer

The last time I was impressed by romantic films was way back in 2004 when Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Before Sunset were released. These films were not your run-of-the-mill love stories. There is none of the overdone plot where a boy and girl meet, fall in love, have sex, fight, break-up, and before the end credits roll swap spit on the streets or airport.

That's a 5-year drought until the release of the terrific (that's a word I will not tire of using) (500) Days of the Summer. A film with the tagline "This is not a love story. It is a story about love.".

The film tells the story of Tom Hanson (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) who meet at a greeting card company where they both work. They soon both hang out together - going window shopping for home furniture, watching movies, renting out porn, having sex.

Tom eventually falls in love but Summer doesn't - pointing out in a scene at the start of the film that she does not see herself as someone else's girlfriend. She later backtracks on this in an excellent scene at a park bench, the best in the film if you ask me, acknowledging that true love, soulmates, destiny - things that Tom believed in but she scoffed at - do exist.

The film, presented in a nonlinear narrative, has many wonderful scenes where the characters spew out great dialogue. It also has a pretty good soundtrack featuring songs from The Smiths, Regina Spektor, and Hall & Oates.

It opens Wednesday and I will most likely watch this on the big screen. Now, I need to go hunt for my autumm. But before that, here's the elevator scene transcript which is one of my favorites from the film.

Summer: I love The Smiths.

Tom: [removing his headphones] Sorry?

Summer: I said I love The Smiths. You–you have a good taste in music.

Tom: You like The Smiths?

Summer: Yeah. “To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.” I love ‘em.

[Summer steps off the elevator]

Tom: Holy shit.

Cinemanila 2009

The 11th edition of the Cinemanila International Film Festival opens today at the Market! Market! Cinemas in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Brillante Mendoza's Lola opens the festival which is by invitation only. Public screenings for the film are scheduled on the 17th, 18th, and 20th.

You can find a list of the festival entries and screenings here.

*****

Here are ways to get to Market! Market! if you do not have your own transport.

a. Take the MRT and get off at the Guadalupe Station. Take the jeepneys located at the back of Jollibee EDSA-Guadalupe going to Gate 3 or Housing.

b. Take the MRT and get off at the Ayala Station. Take the jeepneys or Bonifacio Global City buses located at the back of the gasoline station near the Ayala-EDSA intersection.

c. If you're coming from Libis/Ortigas/Rizal areas, take an FX taxi and get off at Buting (C5-Kalayaan Intersection). Cross the footbridge to the other side of the street and get on any jeep (except for those going to West Buting).

d. Get a cab from Ayala Avenue or Buendia. Cab fare will cost you around P70.

Top 10: Fave War Films

Action movies are fun to watch with over-the-top action scenes and out-of-this world weapons. I always suspend disbelief when I watch films from these genre. I treat them as pure entertainment and don't really care if the plot makes no sense.

My approach on war movies are entirely different since this war did happen and battle scenes with its blood, carnage, and decapitated limbs are all too real, hits too close to home. I take these films more seriously, opting to watch them alone with the curtains drawn and the door locked.

Here then are my 10 favorite war films.

1. Saving Private Ryan. Steven Spielberg's film on World War II is about a band of soldiers sent to find a soldier whose brothers have all died in the war. The first 20 minutes of the film is said to be the grittiest and most realistic depiction of the horror and carnage in Omaha Beach.

2. Apocalypse Now. This war classic from Francis Ford Coppola was shot in the Philippines in the 1970s. Watching a deranged Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz on the latter part of the film is worth the effort of hunting for a longer version of the film, retitled Apocalypse Now Redux, that was released in 2001.

3. Full Metal Jacket. Stanley Kubrick's ultra-violent film follows a group of Unites States Marines from their brutal recruit training to the days spent in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. This is one of my favorite Kubrick films together with 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange.


4. Platoon. Oliver Stone is at the height of his artistic powers in his Oscar-winning film about the Vietnam War starring Charlie Sheen. This film is way up there with Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, and The Deer Hunter (next on the list) as the best Vietnam War movies ever made.

5. The Deer Hunter. Michael Cimino's 1978 Vietnam War film tells the harrowing story of three Russian-American steel workers from a small American town who become prisoners of war and the aftermath after their daring escape from prison. The Russian roulette scenes from prison and later in a Saigon bar is unlike anything I've seen in film.

6. The Thin Red Line. I don't really remember the plot of Terrence Mallick's WWII film which stars a slew of actors like George Clooney, Sean Penn, and Jim Caviezel. I do remember that Mallick photographed the film like he was writing poetry which if you ask me is rather difficult to pull off.

7. Born on the Fourth of July. Tom Cruise gives a bravura performance in Oliver Stone's second Vietnam War film as true-life war veteran Ron Kovic. Kovic gets shot in his teens while fighting the war in Vietnam, rages on his paralysis, and later on channels this rage in protesting the war that has made him wheelchair-bound for life.

8. Three Kings. George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube star in David O. Russel's stylishly cool film released in 1999 about a gold heist set during the 1991 Iraqi uprising against Sadam Hussein.



9. The Hurt Locker. Released in 2008 about a squad of American soldiers deployed in Iraq to dismantle bombs planted by insurgents. Scenes where Ssgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) disarm bombs is taut with suspense and aided with minimal and at times zero musical score.


10. The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Winner of the Palm d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Ken Loach's film is about a pair of brothers fighting together and ultimately against each other for Irish independence. One unsolicited advice if you plan to watch this - make sure the DVD has subtitles, Irish accent is a pain.

Scud's Random Thoughts: Part VIII

I miss doing my random thoughts and since I have things in mind that I want to blog but too tired to do separate posts I might as well revisit this for the nth time. Here it goes...

*****

They were twins, born a week apart. One was extremely intelligent, the other a semi-retard. One was mean, the other lovable. One speaks with the head straight, the other angled to the side. They are Kimmy and Dora, played superbly by Eugene Domingo with the same title sans the and.

The film is a riot. I haven't laughed out loud over a non-festival Filipino film since Ang Tanging Ina many years ago. The Aiza Seguerra song at the end was pretty good too. And Miriam Quiambao is hot.

Watch this!

*****

Three years after the extremely gross and funny Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen is at it again with Bruno. This time he is a gay Austrian desperate to make himself famous or rather infamous based from what he was doing the entire 83-minute running time.

This film is a disappointment. The filmmakers were trying too hard to top Borat. Scenes that were actually funny - the Paula Abdul interview, the Jerry Springer-type show, the wrestling match turned into a gay makeout scene - were few and far between.

Don't pay your hard-earned P140 pesos for this. Eight minutes were cut from the original version. If you really do want to give it a try, buy the dvd. It costs a 100 bucks less.

*****

The US Open, the last tennis major for the calendar year, is underway. As I write this Roger Federer is down a set against Lleyton Hewitt. That is good news since I don't like the 15-time Grand Slam Champion. Bad news is that Novak Djokovic, the only person capable beating Federer before the Finals, is down a set against an American and crowd-favorite Widden. Dammit!

Here's hoping my bets on the men's and women's singles - Murray, Nadal, Djokovic, Sharapova, Clijsters - win the tournament. Magpapa-cheeseburger ako pag nagkataon!

*****

Speaking of tennis, the pact that I and three of my friends made last year to begin playing the sport finally pushed through. It was only this month that all four of us were free from work obligations.

We learned the basic strokes - forehand and backhand - and I tell you it ain't a walk in the park. My forehand sucks but my backhand, which a friend of mine envied, was pretty good. I did hit a lot of moon balls though. The trainer said I was using too much power and was flicking my wrist like I was playing badminton. Arrrggghhhh!

I need practice. More practice. Maybe I should give labs a ring and ask for some tips. Perfect timing too since she's turning 29 within the month.

*****

I don't like my new job. There. I said it. Finally. It sucks. Big time. The tasks are few. I don't get any development work. Documentation of resolutions to application issues are non-existent. My manager don't act like he is one. My lead is an ass. My teammates are a bore. Some of them anyway.

I'm not quitting though. The pay is good. And my finally needs me. This is not the time to be selfish.

*****

I arrived at the office on Friday and found a stress ball on my desk. Nobody knew who left it when I asked around. Someone must have sensed I was stressed for the past few days investigating a production issue and thought the ball would be of help. It didn't.

I only squeezed it once then immediately tucked it on the same place where I first found it. I was not, even remotely, interested in doing a little bit of sleuthing on who gave the ball. Maybe after that damned production issue is resolved.

*****

I was trying out a shirt at the Megamall when I heard a couple talking from separate dressing rooms. I heard a rustling of clothes. Then I heard the woman say out loud "I can smell myself in here".

My mind started working on overdrive. I wondered "What must she be smelling?".

Top 10: Fave Animated Films

As a kid I was hooked on cartoons. I remember rushing home from school after class to catch Transformers and Thundercats among others on our black-and-white TV.

On weekends I and my brother would watch any cartoon show on channels that our antenna, perched on top of our house, could get a signal on. Donald Duck. Mickey Mouse. Road Runner. Popeye. Chipmunks. The Flying House. Cedie, Ang Munting Prinsipe. Sarah, Ang Munting Prinsesa.

As I aged I outgrew the cartoons that I was so fond of. I became more enamored with books and live-action movies and grades. I still watched cartoons though but only full-length ones. I no longer had the patience to watch 30-minute shows that were made solely for kids.

I have seen lots of animations and here is the rundown of my top 10 favorites.

1. Spirited Away(2001). Bar none, this classic animated movie by Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki is the best on my list. The film follows a 10-year-old Chihiro as she tries to save her parents, who have turned into pigs, in a world where spirits and monsters abound. Storytelling and animation at its best.


2. Princess Mononoke (1998). Coming a close second is another film by Miyazaki. Wikipedia describes the film as "a period drama set specifically in the late Muromachi period of Japan but with numerous fantastic elements and concentrates on the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who consume its resources as seen by the outsider Ashitaka".

3. Toy Story (1995). This film, the first among Pixar's masterpieces, was released in 1995 and tells the adventures of cowboy Woody and astronaut Buzz. It was so successful that Pixar released a sequel in 1999 featuring the same characters from the original and released the Academy Award nominated song When She Loved Me. The third installment, Toy Story 3, is set for release on June 18, 2010.

4. Monster's Inc (2001). This is Pixar's4th full-length animation about two "monsters" Sulley and Mike and an adorable little girl named Boo. Who doesn't remember that scene when Sulley bids Boo goodbye and his anguished face when the door to her room was shredded to pieces? Or that final scene when Boo's door was fixed and the camera focused on Sulley's face as he opened the door to Boo's room?

5. Finding Nemo (2003). ES-KA-PE. That is the first word that comes to mind when this film is mentioned. Dory, voiced by Ellen Degeneres, who has short-term memory loss steals the show from the father-and-son tandem Marlin and Nemo. I read that the DVD is a the all-time bestseller. I am not surprised. The movie is classic Pixar.


6. The Incredibles (2004). Who knew that an action movie would look so good and hugely entertaining in animated form? Brad Bird, who directed the movie, also had a field day giving voice to the designer of the Parr’s supersuites. Kung Fu Panda, who sadly is not included in my list, is also a terrific action movie.



7. Shrek (2001). Shrek. Princess Fiona. Donkey. Dreamworks' first foray into digital animation was both a critical and commercial success. The sequel, released in 2004, was even better and more hilarious thanks to Antonio Banderas' Puss in Boots. Shrek the Third was a disappointment. The third sequel, Shrek Forever After, is set for release on May 21, 2010.


8. Coraline (2009). This is a terrific animated stop-motion fantasy film based on Neil Gaiman's novel. The film tells the story of Coraline Jones who discovers a small door on the new apartment that she and her parents had recently moved in. The door is a passageway to the Other World where her more attentive "Other Parents" live and have a secret agenda of their own.


9. Persepolis (2007). Based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel and winner of the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the film follows “a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution”. The film made in black-and-white is sometimes hilarious, sometimes harrowing, and always has the heart in the right place.


10. Grave of the Fireflies (1988). This Japanese film directed by Isao Takahata is not your typical animated film. It is not a fantasy where toys and cars talk. In the film we see the orphaned protagonists try and fail to survive war-torn Japan set during the dying days of World War II. This is probably the most serious and "real" animated film that I have seen.


Honorable mention goes to The Lion King, Animatrix, Waltz with Bashir, Kung Fu Panda, Chicken Run, Ice Age 1 & 2, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, and the rest of the Pixar films not included on my list.

Have a great long weekend everyone!

District 9

For 20 years a spaceship has been hovering over the city of Johannesburg in South Africa unable to function, a part of it gone missing. The aliens, found clustered inside the ship, are placed in a government camp called District 9.

The camp as the years pass eventually turns into a slum and the co-habitation between humans and aliens are plagued with violent riots and racial discrimination.

For peace to settle between the two warring camps, aliens are relocated to a new camp 240 km off Johannesburg. Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), an employee of a private military contractor (MNU), is tasked to lead the relocation.

On the first day of the transfer, van de Merwe confiscates a black canister and inadvertently sprays himself with alien fluid. All hell breaks lose shortly thereafter.

I won't spoil the rest of the plot but this is where the film gets more interesting as van de Merwe races against time to keep himself alive.

This is by far the best movie of the North American summer toppling Star Trek and Up from the top of my list. It has an engrossingly solid story, kick-ass weaponry, and an ending that does not attempt to tie all loose ends. Filming it documentary-style was nifty too.

Go watch this!

Up

After last year's 20-minute ode to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in Wall-E Pixar is at it again with a touching sequence of two kids sharing a passion or the wilds of South America and their marital union - the bliss of living and loving and the woes of losing loved ones in Up.

The film was the first animation in Cannes history to open the festival and it got rave reviews from critics and viewers. Since it was in 3D I vowed to watch the visuals in the x-y-z axis and the P300 I paid was worth it.

The animation was simply stunning. The colors vibrant. The plot engaging. I laughed it out with the kids and mentally noted the "Thanks for the adventure. Now go have a new one." message. I thought, even in the darkened theatre with two glasses - presciption and 3D - perched uncomfortably on the bridge of my nose, that Ellie's note might come in handy in the future. It is a darn good break-up line.

Pixar yet again does not disappoint.

Cinemalaya Cinco: Final Update

4. That's the number of days I spent at the CCP.

9. That's the number of full-length films in competition that I watched. 24K was the exception.

10. That's the number of short films in competition that I watched.

1. That's the number of films in competition that I watched.

1. That's the number of bloggers in my blogroll that I saw. Consistent with my personality I did not introduce myself.

4. That's the number of feature films that I expected to be good and did not disappoint - Dinig Sana Kita, Last Supper No 3, Ang Panggagahasa Kay Fe, and Mangatyanan.

2. That's the number of feature films that were surprisingly good - Sanglaan and Colorum. The former does not have a great story but boasts of fantastic cinematoraphy and Ina Feleo. The latter is a road movie that brings us from Manila to Bicol to Leyte and back. Alfred Vargas and Lou Veloso are a revelation.

2. That's the number of films that were not great but were not bad either - Nerseri and Engkwentro.

2. That's the number of feature films that did disappoint - Astig and Aurora.

6. That's the number of shorts that were really good. There's Behind Closed Doors, Hulagpos, Ugat sa Lupa, Si Bok at ang Trumpo, Blogog, and Bonsai.

1. That's the number of shorts that I could not fathom - Musa. I overheard a few people say the film is great because of its symbolisms. Frankly, I could not find one. Nagmukha akong bobo.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

My friend Sese gave me an offer I can't refuse. For 100 bucks she was selling 2 tickets for a blocked screening of HP6. It was a steal and I didn't pass up the the chance.

So a few hours ago I braved the rain, traffic, and an overcrowded MRT to get to SM Megamall. We were made to wait for about half an hour before the movie start but it was worth it.

At a running time of around 2 hours and 30 minutes, the 6th installment of the Harry Potter franchise doesn't feel like it was that long. 

The first few minutes is a visual treat. Quidditch matches were fun. Gambon (Dumbledore), Broadbent (Slughorn), Bonham Carter (Lestrange), Smith (McGonagall) and the brilliant Rickman (Snape) are enthralling. The budding romance of Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione was hilarious at times. 

If you're looking for some action like that terrific battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort from HP5 then you would be sorely disappointed. There's none of that in HP6. No Ralph Fiennes too. But what the film lacked in fight scenes they offset with cornfield (reminds me of The Signs) and lake (reminds me of Star Wars and LOTR) scenes taut with suspense. 

The last 30 minutes of the movie is edgy and dark. Brilliant filmmaking if you ask me. I wish though that the screen faded to black right after the Half-Blood Prince character was revealed. That would have been a stroke of genius. 

*****

A heads-up to Harry Potter purists. I'm not absolutely sure about this though, since I last read the book way back in 2005, but I think the filmmakers changed the ending a bit. I'm not going to spoil what these changes were. Abangan niyo na lang.

Apart from that minor quibble I'm actually now looking forward to the final 2 Harry Potter movies. Yep. You read it right the first time. The producers wanted to milk whatever they could from the franchise and decided to release the final installment in 2 parts. 

Let the countdown begin to November 2010 and July 2011.